Mom of Three but especially the middle child…

Yesterday I moved my middle child into college. Breathe with me moms because you know, like I do, what an exceptionally hard thing this is to do. I’m not saying its just hard to move the middle kid in, all kids are equally difficult. There’s just something though about my middle one that’s always broken my cold black heart.

Since the days of preschool, my Ethan has always had a hard time transitioning. Whether they left art or the playground, it was difficult for him. This has definitely played a part in his life. A 9/11 generation baby, he came into the world during an unsure, frightening time. I was four months pregnant and I can’t help but wonder if my feelings about the uncertainty of the world, somehow rubbed off on him in the womb.

Regardless, this child grew up and made his way in the world. No matter how difficult things were for him, and believe me, they were, he persevered. He was raised in a privileged home. No need to beat around the bush, he was. Ethan went to a phenomenal Jewish preschool. It was a small school, mostly comprised of Jewish children in the neighborhood. They taught him kindness and the love of singing. I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better place for my sweet, mostly unsure, two year old. Bet Shira preschool shaped his life. His elementary school days in public school were mostly happy ones filled with friends and good times. The salad days.

So, the middle school days came about and my shy, sweet boy found drama. The boy who was scared of a lot, somehow managed to score a lead in the sixth grade play. And let me tell you, he KILLED it.

From that moment on he was a success on the stage. Killed every middle school show and went on to high school drama. As a freshman he earned the role of Jack in Into The Woods and it went from there. As a junior Ethan was Man In Chair, the lead in The Drowsy Chaperone. The show was a smash and got to go to the High School state Drama competition where they performed in front of 3000 people. They KILLED it.

To make a little bit of a long story short, Ethan graduated. He graduated during a pandemic. So just as he was a 9/11 baby, he was a Covid senior. Honestly how strange that a baby coming into this world during an uncertain time then ended another huge phase of life, in a similar situation. Surreal. After a lot of stress and many auditions at his top schools (before Covid) he got accepted at Tisch, a famed NYU acting school. Tisch and his studio, Stella Adler has birthed some of the most famous performers you have ever heard of. Including Robert Deniro, Diana Ross & Martin Sheen.

So that brings me to now. I’ve just settled him in at NYU. Taking a kid to college during a pandemic is strange to say the VERY least. But I’m fortunate that he was able to move in, during this time & experience something as opposed to only online school at home.

Listen, New York City is not easy. Even visiting beats the crap out of you. Will it always be easy? No. Will he succeed in the acting world? Who knows? But as the saying goes, if he can make it there, he can make it anywhere.

Of